Advanced Placement

United States HistoryChapters 1 & 2

Aim: How does European contact, impact the

Americas?

Do Now: “Thirty-three days after my

departure from (the Canary islands) I reached

the Indian Sea, where I discovered many

islands, thickly peopled, of which I took

possession without resistance in the name of

our most illustrious monarch, by public

proclamation and with unfurled banners.”

-Christopher Columbus, select letters 1493

Native Americans Pre-Contact

(Prior to 1492) • Over 10,000 years before Columbus, people came to the

Americas via the Bering Strait

• Native Americans developed a wide variety of social, political,

and economic structures based upon interactions with each

other and the environment.

• Native American religion was very often connected to their

relationship with nature

– Animism: belief that nonhuman things (plants, animals)

possess a spiritual essence

Native American Culture They developed different and complex societies that both transformed and adapted

to their diverse environments

Examples: Southwest (Pueblo): lived in arid land and relied on irrigation to grow

maize & other agricultural products

Great Basin & Great Plains (Lakota Sioux): lack of natural resources led to

growth of nomadic lifestyle & the importance of hunting buffalo

Atlantic coast & Northeast (Iroquois): mix of agricultural & hunter-gatherer

society. Established permanent villages Iroquois Confederation

Europe and exploration Renaissance

Improvements in technology

Religious conflict

Spain’s Isabella and Ferdinand reunite the

kingdom, expelling the Islamic invaders

Protestant Reformation

Expanding trade

Ottoman Turks blocked land route to Asia

Interests in goods elsewhere (spices)

Economic power (empire)

Better technology & printing press

(excitement)

Christopher Columbus

Under the financial support of Ferdinand and Isabella, sails

from Canary Islands September 6th, 1492 and lands in the

Bahamas October 12th, 1492

Viewed as a failure, for never finding much gold, little spices

and no simple route to China & India.

Died thinking he found a route to Asia.

Legacy?

Colonization of the “New” World 3 G’s: Gold, Glory, God

Gold: New sources of wealth (trade with Asia)

Glory: ^ power & status

God: convert the native population to Christianity

The arrival of Columbus in 1492 (& other Europeans after) led to massive demographic and

social changes on both sides of the Atlantic

Columbian Exchange: Trans-Atlantic exchange of

people, diseases, food, trade, ideas, etc. between the

Western Hemisphere, Africa, and Europe

Horses (from Europe) dramatically change Native life

Disease such as smallpox (from Europe) lead to

Massive population decline as deadly epidemics spread

Maize/corn (from America) fueled population

increase in Europe

EARLY COLONIZATION:

Spain & Portugal Treaty of Tordesillas Spain & Portugal agree to divide up the

Western Hemisphere

Spain was the earliest to colonize North America (St. Augustine, 1565)

Encomienda System: Spanish colonists received land with native

people

Native slave labor in mining (silver) or agriculture (sugar) Spanish

sought to convert Native people to Catholicism

Racially mixed populations of European, Native, and

African people

Mestizo: people of mixed Indian and European heritage

Mulatto: people of mixed white and black ancestry

Pueblo Revolt 1680

Attempts to change Native American beliefs led to resistance

and conflict

Popé's Rebellion in 1680 leads to the death of hundreds of

Spanish colonists and the destruction of Catholic churches in the

area

Catholic churches in the area change Native American beliefs

led to resistance and conflict

“Native

people

strove to

maintain

their

political and

cultural

autonomy”

Spanish Colonization “Debates occurred over how Native Americans should be treated and how

“civilized” they were compared to European standards”

Juan de Sepúlveda wrote “Just Causes for War Against the Indians” that justified

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Bartolomé de las Casas published in 1552 “A Short Account of the Destruction of

the Indies” that criticized Spanish treatment of the indigenous people

Comparing European Colonization Protestant England will soon challenge

Spanish colonization of North America

Unlike the English colonist, the

Spanish, French, and Dutch are going

to attempt to exploit new world

resources AND form more complex

relationships with indigenous people

Spain and Portugal formed colonies

that used Native American and African

slave labor in agriculture and mining

France, Holland, Spain will trade,

intermarry with natives Reasons for

colonization

Mercantilism: colonies exist to enrich

the Mother country

Access to raw materials

Provide gold and silver

“...the whole of the North American continent was six thousand years behind European civilization. It

was only inhabited by Red Indians, and not more than a million of them, while long stretches of wild

meadow and primeval forest, extending like years into the distance, had no human dwellers at all. A

wildly beautiful land, enormously fertile, carrying but a million Indians -- it is difficult to conceive now.”

John Stewart Collis, The Vision of Glory: the Extraordinary Nature of the Ordinary (London: Penguin

Books, 1975).

4. The excerpt would be most useful to historians as a source of information about which of the

following?

a. Compiling the population totals of indigenous peoples in the pre-Columbian era.

b. Affirming the role of indigenous peoples in the preservationist movement.

c. Examining the impact of European exploration and colonization on indigenous Americans.

d. The lack of cohesive social and political systems among indigenous Americans.

5. Proponents of the ideas expressed in Collis’ analysis would most likely have agreed with which of the

following?

a. Native peoples had the ability to manipulate the environment, but chose not to.

b. The reason why so few Native Americans were in North America was due to the impact of deadly

microbes.

c. Great kingdoms like the Mexica and Inca rivaled, and in some cases, surpassed, those in Europe.

d. Europeans brought civilization and cultivation to the Americas.